smallbusinesssuccessfandomcom-20200215-history
Random thoughts of a positive nature!
I'm really not sure what I'm doing here but feel I have something to say--recently, I've been putting together a website to help promote my small company--R Hopkins LLC a small company dedicated to helping small business owners succeed in their various businesses and one of the points that sort of just fell into place was--and I was speaking here about what, in my humble opinion, it really takes to be successful in any smaller, personally, owned and directed business-what I suprised myself by saying was simply--"its not your head that's going to get you there but your heart"--what did I really mean by this random, unpremeditated, comment? I suppose something on the order of --it's not the size of the dog in the fight that's most important but rather the size of the fight in the dog! I suppose still another comment I once heard also somehow applies--the comment was "I'd rather be attacked by an army of lions led by a sheep than I would by an army of sheep led by a lion" Fundamentally, this all says something to what I believe is confirmed fact, that it's whats inside that counts-i.e the shear will to succeed--persistence, determination and all that, this also reminds me of the following quote by John Calvin Coolidge--"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determnation alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the numan race"--pretty good stuff--I believe in it! I guess one of the things that really interests me--having been a student of business (whatever I mean by that) for nearly 50 years (I'll be seventy next year)--it doesn't take a rocket scientist to determine what needs to be done in many/most particular business or managment circumstances--the real challenge is doing it, or getting it done---getting back to my thinking that there are but five things (different from my five numbers) anyone needs to succeed (I'll lay these things out here in a minute) but--most people can figure out where they are (a pretty big deal) and I suppose where they might prefer to be but where they fail is in getting there i.e.making the transition to where they might prefer to be! Is it poor planning or no planning? Is it the lack of will, determination or just what--most will make the excuse I didn't have the money--my family could not afford to put me through school--I had a head ache or I suppose I'm just too lazy--whatever--its always something--where are you? For that matter, where am I? Relative to where we might prefer to be--why aren't we there? Just too much effort? What the hell else do we have to do with our lives?-- I'll get back to all this later and lay out those five things I feel each of us needs to really succeed--what do I mean by succeed? Just getting where we might want to go--accomplishing whatever it is we would seriously like to accomplish--or is the a great number of us out there who really just don't give a damn? In any event, I'm not talking to those kinds of people--do you know what I'm saying? See you in a bit! Ok, it's been a bit! First quickly the five "things" you need to succeed and without which you surely will not succeed--they are 1) you need to know where you are in life-who you are, what you're made of, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, all that for example (hypothetically--I'm a fifty year old guy-I think, going through some mid-life crisis, just divorced, need a change in my life-a goal or meaning-I'm living in New Orleans and would rather be somewhere else-I'm a store clerk, way under (as far as I'm concernec) employed i.e I have a Bachelors degree in Engineering, etc., etc., what I'm saying (this is really me again) what are you really made of, what do you have to work with are you lazy-on a scale of 1-10 a 5 (as you think others precieve you) or whatever--now then 2) where is it you would prefer to be--working in a real job doing what you've been professionally trained to do, living say in Kansas-Chicago, Ill., or wherever you might prefer---Ok, the point is her I am-there is where I want or feel I need to be! 3) you need a doable/realistic plan to get from point A to point B--a real plan, time, dates, spefic objectives--then you need 4) the "will", determination--whatever it takes emotionally, psycologically to get there I guess we could say the degree of "want to" necessay to get you there and make sure you don't just give up the first bump you hit and then 5) you need the wherewithal to get there (look up wherewithal in the dictionary) perhaps the money or credit availablitiy to see the plan through maybe this is time-if you only have 24 hours to live (I hope that's not the case but just say,) you probably ain't gonna make it or for a fact do not have the "wherewithal". So in one form or another whatever you want to call it you need these five things to succeed--you know what I'm saying? If you don't really know where you are now how are you going to develop a road map or plan to get somewhere else? Ain't gonna happen or say you know these two things but have no plan--ain't gonna happen--or you know where you are, where you might prefer to be or where you want to go and a plan to get there but--no determination, stickto-itiveness! It ain't gonna happen--first rainy day or first set back you're going to give up or quit and finally without wherewithal-we talked about this a minute ago--it ain't gonna happen i.e if you need money for a bus ticket you need to get it or at least earn this amount first-------are you understanding what I'm saying? We could call these things by a hundred other names but the logic is the same--you need these things to succeed. Now then because I'm a small business guru let's talk about you're perhaps wanting to have your own company rather than work for someone else. Incidentally you should read E-Myth a great book on this subject-stands for Entraprenureal Myth i.e. owning your own business and workng for yourself might not be the best thing-there is a lot more to it than meets the eye--let talk about this later--I'm getting tired of typing!